, 1887-01-23
WHEN NIAGARA WAS DRY.
A Remarkable Day. Forty Years Ago. In
tho History of tho Great Cataract.

A Remarkable Day. Forty Years Ago, In
tho History of tho Great Cataract.
''Thirty-nine years ago next spring."
said an old resident of this village, "a
sight was witnessed at the falls of Mag
ara that had never been seen before, at
least by people then on earth, and in all
probability such a sight will never be wit
messed again. 1t was nothing more nor
less than the running dry of the great
cataract, or at least so nearly dry hat it
is no exaggeration to call it so, in which
condition the falls remained for one whole
day.
The winter of 184S had been one of
the coolest on record, and such ice has
never been known on Lake Erie since, I
guess, as formed that season. 1t was of
thickness. 1t was quite late in
the spring before the ice was loosened,
even about the shores of the lake. One
day. think it was near the end of
April-a very stiff northeasterly wind
came up, and its force was SO great that
it moved the great fields of ice, then EN-
tirely separated from the shores, up the
lake, piling the foes in great banks as
they moved. The sight of those ice
banks is described yet by those who wit
licooCd Oilc VI hlOot dWlul dIlQtui =.
Toward night the wind changed suddenly
to the opposite quarter, and grew into u
terrible gale from hat direction. The
lakes surface was packed with NINA
ture icebergs, and these were hurled back
by the gale with such tremendous force
that an impenetrable dam was formed in
the neck of the lake from which Niagara
river flows, N the great current of
water which finds IT'S way from the lake
in the rushing channel of that stream, to
be dashed over the gigantic precipice at
the falls, was S held in check that not
more than o~ne-quarter of its usual vol
ume could find a passage through the
immense pack Of ice.
As this pack was stubborn, it was
naturally but a very short time before
the falls had drained nearly all the water
out of the river. This, of course, &C
CURED during the night, and we people
who lived in Niagara village knew moth
ing OF The phenomena until next morn
ing. L. remember hat | awoke very
early thss morning, with the sense of
something N.xceedingly strange expressing
me. 1t wastsome time before | discov-
cred that the hseling came from the fact
that then noise OF the cataract was almost
missing. / jumped out of bed, and on
leaving the house found that scores of
Others had been awakened by the same
circumstance, and wers hurrying toward
the falls to sec what the trouble was.
We found hat the great Niagara falls
was only about one-quartef of its former
volume.
1--WE had not heard of the trouble at
Lake Erie, and the terrible thought that
the falls were running dry created a feel
ing of alarm not easily imaginable. The
American channel had dwindled to a
creek in comparison with its original pro
portions, while the British channel re-
sembled some ordinary river in the
droughts of August. Goat island was as
big as two Goat islands, as the water had
shrunk from every side of it, leaving u
wide expanse of wet, Shiny Jagged rocks,
which no eye in that vicinity had ever
seen before. The bed of the Canadian
rapids, far out into the stream, was dry,
as was the space between the lower end
of Goat island, and out beyond the
tower. The rocks thus exposed vert
black and forbidding, giving the dry
river bed the appearance of a tract OF
charred stumps. The Three Sisters
looked forlorn in their enhanced dimen.
sions. The great jet Of water which had
from time out of mind leaped into the all
about 800 yards south of this group OF
islands in the great rapids, and which is
leaping there to-day. was not leapine
that morning, and. as some M re-
marked hat day, the tremendous roar OF
Niagara had subsidized to a moan.
The scene was at once desolate,
lt-nta rn n,1 npwf,, - .A,ta.-1ota Tua
picture will never leave my mind. The
whole village vas out exploring caves,
dark recesses, curious formations in the
rocks and other remarkable features Of
the cataract and rapids that no morta.
eye had probably ever gazed upon before,
These explorations We're made safely u
the very brink of the Horseshoe rapids.
A Mr.. Holley drove a horse and buggy
from the head of Goat island lear to tn,
spot where the leaping jet of water hac
always writhed and foamed. He alsc
cut several sticks of timber near the brinl
of Horseshoe falls, had them hewed there
and hauled them away with four horses
These sticks-they were large, fine tim
bers-are in the frame of some house a
the falls now. This remarkable condi
ton of affairs at the cataract continued
all day, and showed no signs Of a chang
when the people went to bed that night
When we arose in the morning, however
the old familiar thunder of the falls wa
again shaking the earth as before, ant
the river and rapids were again tn
seething, whirling, irresistible torrent o
old. The ice in the lake had shiftet
again, and some time in the night tn
long restrained volume of water Ina,
rushed down and claimed its OWL